Making big steps towards a sustainable electricity system

Guido Dalessi (CEO of Elestor) and Diederik Apotheker (Thema Expert Next Generation Power at Invest-NL) are working together to make the technology simpler, more robust, and cheaper.

Innovation Strategy

The regulation of our electricity system is a complex matter. Large fluctuations need to be absorbed with battery systems. Until recently, this mainly involved batteries that could bridge a few hours, as most fossil plants are still operational and provide the base load. When these plants are phased out AND the capacity is expanded through unpredictable sources (solar and wind), the need arises to have reserves available for longer periods (recent analyses show up to 130 hours). Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) is therefore essential to achieve a reliable electricity system. Just as reliable as our current system but based on renewable sources and at the lowest possible cost. Existing battery technologies (such as lithium-ion) do not offer optimal economic solutions for these applications. Such batteries have limited raw material supplies and pose a looming economic dependence due to the geographically limited sources of these materials.

Investment Round

For the total investment of € 30 million, Invest-NL acts as co-lead investor. With the investment of € 15 million, Invest-NL provides half of Elestor's Series A investment from a consortium led by Equinor's corporate venture capital arm. Other investors include Royal Vopak, Somerset Capital Partners, Enfuro Ventures, and EIT InnoEnergy.

With this investment, Elestor can scale up to a GigaWatt production facility and accelerate the commercialization of the flow battery. Guido: “We are ready to deliver precisely the type of energy storage solutions for renewable energy that the world currently needs so much.” The Elestor case is one of the largest Dutch VC investment rounds in climate tech in 2022. Diederik: “From Invest-NL, we recognized the strategic value early on. Invest-NL can therefore quickly commit, showing that we are ready to participate in this round. That increases confidence among other investors and has contributed to forming the consortium.”

Quantifying impact

Invest-NL applies comprehensive tools to measure and guide a company's impact, which, in addition to CO2 savings, also quantifies circularity. For many companies, this is still not the core of their proposition. Diederik: “Elestor was able to very quickly provide a very complete picture of its circularity and was already considering improvements for the next 20 years. The precision and completeness were unprecedented. This strong vision on circularity contributes to the belief that Elestor can produce its products at low cost in the long term.”

It is clear that Elestor places a high priority on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Together with Invest-NL and lead investor Equinor, an impact assessment was conducted, measuring various ESG indicators to assess how much Elestor contributes positively. Guido: “In general, access to cheap energy contributes to almost all SDGs to a greater or lesser extent. Besides decarbonising the environment, renewable energy supply also indirectly leads to better living conditions, improved development opportunities, access to information, etc.”

Making an impact for a CO2-neutral society is central. Guido sees this reflected throughout the entire company: “Not only myself, but all employees of Elestor are intrinsically motivated to contribute to a CO2-neutral society. This goes far beyond working for a company that develops an innovative method for electricity storage. Almost all business processes take environmental and energy aspects into account, such as energy consumption, personal transportation, raw material use, and circular waste processing. It’s a pleasure to be part of that.”